Engineer Project Manager

James Neihoff

Grand Rapids, MI 248-***-****

************@*****.***

CAREER OBJECTIVE:

Seeking a position as a Tooling / Manufacturing / Mechanical Design Engineer or Manager where I may

be a key contributor to the organization.

EXPERIENCE/SKILLS SUMMARY:

Highly creative engineer with extensive manufacturing, product mechanical design and analysis

experience. Areas of expertise include; New Product Mechanical Design and manufacturing process

development. Development of Tooling and Automation Equipment Design and Engineering.

Seasoned Operations and Project Manager with extensive experience managing projects and budgets,

as well as leading and managing multi-disciplined staff to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

Have a strong mind-set toward quality and the bottom line. Always seeking to drive down costs and

increase profits while striving for perfect quality and organizational harmony.

Strong technical and computer skills:

- Very strong computer/CAD skills including SolidWorks and Pro Engineer for modeling

components, assemblies and tooling. Pro-Mechanica Analysis tools for FEA, Thermal and Mold

Flow Analysis. AutoCAD 2D and 3D, MS Office and many others. Network

application/implementation and support experience.

- Strong manufacturing experience with direct manufacturing operations management

experience

- Very strong troubleshooter of mechanical design and manufacturing issues.

- Strong mechanical design experience including new product design of electronic assemblies,

mechanical components, fixtures and assembly tooling, automation equipment, robotic and

automation development experience, robot end effecter design, injection mold design, automated

electronic testing systems in an RF environment. Design of complex electro-mechanical devices.

- Rapid Prototyping development and applications experience.

Strategic thinker, creative problem solver and decision-maker with a very strong mechanical and

business aptitude.

Excellent interpersonal skills developed through many years of experience and training.

Solid background in Statistical Process Control and Six Sigma variation reduction techniques and

LEAN manufacturing principles.

Outstanding written and verbal communication skills with ability to communicate well with all

levels from the factory floor to the boardroom.

Specialties: - Mechanical Design - Operations Management - Manufacturing Implementation and

Support - CAD/Computer Tools - Project Management - Design for Manufacturing - Problem

solving and Troubleshooting of design and manufacturing issues

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

Principal Mechanical Design Engineer

Marathon Design Engineering, Inc.

Costa Mesa, CA - Grand Rapids, MI

August 2002 to Present

- Lead engineer of a design and engineering company performing contract design services.

- Performed creative mechanical designs of products, plastic injection molds, tooling and fixtures

used for assembly, testing, machining, gauging and fabrication of various components and

products.

Sr. Product Development Mechanical Engineer

Sensormatic / Tyco

Boca Raton, FL

August 2000 to June 2002

- Lead Mechanical Engineer responsible for the product development and support of

environmentally sealed video surveillance systems

- Designed state of the art robotic video surveillance camera systems and enclosures

- Solved numerous quality problems on an ongoing basis

- Instrumental in driving down costs of existing products through working with vendors to

improve their processes

- Designed complex plastic and metal components using solid modeling with Pro-Engineer

- Responsible for the transition of products from design to full scale manufacturing.

- Supported the evaluation of new suppliers and provided leadership in identifying novel

manufacturing techniques and methods.

- Performed stress and thermal analysis and mold flow analysis of components and assemblies.

- Key role in cross functional Product Development team

- Worked with suppliers to resolve quality and cost issues in the field

Sr. Tooling Engineer

Global Precision, Inc.

Davie, FL

August 1999 to August 2000

- Designed state of the art injection molds for the plastic closure industry

- Designed complex plastic components using Pro-Engineer solid modeling

- Company specialized in high cavitation tooling with mechanized unscrewing systems for

internal threads

- Considered “go to guy” for Pro Engineer related issues

Senior Mechanical Process / Tooling Engineer

Keystone Engineering / Hamilton Sundstrand / United Technologies Corporation

Los Angeles, CA

August 1998 to August 1999

- Designed tooling and fixtures for the manufacture of aerospace components and assemblies

- Developed processes and planning for machining and fabrication of components used on Atlas

rocket engines and satellite propulsion systems. Including process specification, fabrication set

up procedures and production aids.

- Company specialized in thin wall fuel tanks for satellite propulsion systems in addition to

Atlas rocket components and AWACS rotary bearing assemblies.

Engineering / Operations and Project Manager

Sigma Design and Tool, Inc.

- Boynton Beach, Florida

September 1995 to August1998

- Lead engineer and operations manager of a design and manufacturing company utilizing

CAD/CAM systems and CNC machining technology for prototype and CNC production

machining activities of aerospace (Pratt and Whitney Aerospace, Lockheed Martin)

transportation (Trinity Industries) and consumer (Motorola) components.

- Developed and implemented operations plan for a state of the art contract manufacturing

organization

- Developed and implemented statistical process control system for support of processing and

quality

- Performed fixture design and created CNC programs for machining of specialty components

Engineering Manager

Motorola Mobile Products

Boynton Beach, FL

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Group

December 1992 to September 1995

-Provided leadership to the Tooling Engineering Department and in-house Model / Machine

shop.

- Implemented in-house plastic injection mold tooling and molding operations

- Developed organization for the implementation of a quick turn-around injection mold tooling

operation ("Rapid Tooling")

- Researched and developed advanced manufacturing processes to reduce time to market of

mobile consumer electronics.

- Converted in house Model Shop from a small role support organization to a 3 shift, critical

operation that supported both New Product Development and Manufacturing with state of the art

injection molding and machining capabilities.

Staff Tooling / Equipment Engineer

Motorola Mobil Products

Boynton Beach, FL

Technical Operations

May 1984 to December 1992

- Was Manufacturing Supervisory Engineer for fully automated pager factory including direct

supervision of 30 direct labor personnel, technicians, and engineering support staff

- Performed mechanical design on Pro-Engineer including plastic components, injection molds,

assembly fixtures and RF enclosed test tooling

- Designed fully automated manufacturing systems including hard tooled automation and robotic

end of arm tooling

- Provided Project Management for new products for release to manufacturing

- Played a key role in the design, implementation and daily operations management of

Motorola’s premier manufacturing system, “Operation Bandit”

- Provided direct factory support for the manufacture, assembly and processing of electronic

products. This included the mechanical design of manual and automated test fixtures, tools, dies,

jigs and fixtures, automated equipment, and handling systems

- Provided support and project management for off-shore manufacturing sites. (Puerto Rico,

Singapore, Malaysia)

Journeyman Tool and Die Maker

Several Tool and Die companies

Detroit area and South Florida

- Designed, processed, machined, and assembled tools, dies, jigs, fixtures and gages.

- Lead tooling construction efforts for major industries including Automotive, Aerospace and heavy

industry.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Science, Business / Professional Management

Nova Southeastern University

Davie, Florida

Completed coursework toward MBA (Had 2 semesters remaining)

Nova Southeastern University

Davie, Florida

Completed coursework toward BSME degree prior to switching major to business while employed as an

engineer at Motorola. (A.S. Equivalent)

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND AWARDS:

Member: - American Society of Mechanical Engineers

- Society of Manufacturing Engineers

- SME Rapid Prototyping Association

- Society of Plastics Engineers

* Received a Motorola Engineering Award for “First Automated Radio Tuning Mechanism For

Portable RF Products”.

* Received an award from Kyocera Corporation, Japan Capacitor Division for a new component

design, “Robot Tunable Trimmer Capacitor”

* Received an award from the South Florida Manufacturers Association for

Outstanding advancement of the Rapid Prototyping group.

* Several mechanical design patents pursued while at Motorola.

* Patent applied for while at Sensormatic for Photosensitive Dome Enclosure for CTTV Cameras

PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS:

Sr. Product Development Mechanical Engineer

“Jim has the unique ability to deal with a wide variety of challenges. He addresses new product

proposals, new product designs, customer problems, sales issues, installer problems, factory issue, and

tooling of optical components, plastic parts and metal parts with an excellent overall understanding.

These skills were critical to the design engineering department of video surveillance cameras.”

Steve Schieltz, Senior Consulting Engineer, Tyco International

Managed James at Sensormatic

Sr. Tooling Engineer / Tooling Project Manger

“Jim gave me, and the other test engineers, excellent tooling design support. In a time of fast paced

pager programs, his leadership and design talent allowed on-time test fixture rollout for several critical

programs. I would welcome any opportunity to work with Jim in the future.”

David Winfree, PMP, Senior Staff Test Engineer, Motorola Cellular Division

Worked directly with James at Motorola

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